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Summer 1999 Vol. 26 Issue 2.
Front Page |
The BoatsIn this issue, a special on one of the most distinctive boats on the waterways: Phoenix.
PhoenixJohn LefroyPhoenix: A brief history
These are the bare outlines of a boat that has been prominent on the Shannon all her life. To put it in perspective, I like to point out that she was forty years old when the Titanic sank. The Phoenix was built for Francis Spaight of Derry Castle on Lough Derg, possibly as a wedding present for his son, William. Another story is that she got her name from the Phoenix Insurance Company, who paid out when Derry Castle burnt down in 1870 — take your pick. The Spaights and the Malcolmsons were both major shareholders in the Limerick to Waterford Railway Company, and it is probably this connection that had the Phoenix built in that most progressive of yards, which built many famous ships up to 4000 tons deadweight. At 4.00pm on 6 June 1873, she arrived as an unnamed boat at Plassey Lock en route for Killaloe, with Skipper Considine in charge for the Spaights, as he was to be for another 30 years. She was based in Killaloe until 1884 when, according to Lloyds Yacht Register, she went back to Malcolmson's yard for "a new bottom," whatever that meant. A bad grounding or (more likely) defects in the iron; cracking perhaps, due to poor rolling of the iron plates; we will probably never know, but there is no sign of any such work today. She was then leased to Arthur Waller, chief brewer in Guinness, who brought her down the Grand Canal — and that must have been fun with her draught! She is noted at this stage in the log of the Audax. We begin to know more about her in 1903, when my great-uncle Harry Lefroy bought her. He had owned the Meta, which he bought in Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) in about 1895; she was subsequently sold to General Hickie of Slevoir when he bought the Phoenix. Harry and his wife Min (Minchin), who had a withered arm, used the boat extensively for the next thirty-two years. He owned the Mill in Killaloe, where there was a covered dock, which is one reason for her survival when most other boats rotted away. We are fortunate to have his log from 1903 to 1912. He had a number of barges on the river to distribute the products of the Mill, including the Eclipse Flour (still, I believe, in Wexford) and the Faugh a Ballagh (later Gilleroo, now Tristan, converted in Carrick-on-Shannon). So he used the Phoenix as a floating office and supervised the building of jetties and quays in Portumna, Grange and Spencer's Dock (Lough Allen) amongst others, while living aboard. He was very prominent in trying to develop the Shannon for trade, and made submissions to successive Governments and to the Shuttleworth report in 1906. But the main function of the Phoenix was for pleasure. In the log are lists of people brought out for picnics, holiday trips to Lough Allen and bunkering (with coal from Arigna). There were shooting trips up Lough Derg in winter; time spent acting as starting boat for yachting events around the lakes; people, friends and family visited and brought on trips — even references to rows on board! It is fascinating reading and, even though so much has happened in the intervening years, it reads just like her present life. Uncle Harry re-boilered the Phoenix in 1912, and was pleased to report that she would do Killaloe Pierhead to Williamstown in one hour flat — which was 12.5mph! She was laid up for the First World War in Killaloe. After the war, Harry was re-engining the Eclipse Flour and took the opportunity to do the same for the Phoenix. He puchased, for £450, a marvellous two-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engine, made by Ellwe of Sweden. It had a compressed-air start mechanism and developed 36ihp at 475rpm (if it was in good humour), equivalent to a modern engine of about 85bhp. That saw the end of the steam kitchen in the saloon and the removal of the boiler under the wheelhouse freed up that area for a poky kitchen and bathroom. At this time the Shannon scheme, and the consequent raising of the river in Killaloe, rendered the Mill useless and Harry sold it to the ESB. In compensation, a boathouse was built for the Phoenix above the bridge, and this became her new home. Harry did not have much use of this shed just below his house, or of the new engine, because he suffered a stroke and died in 1935. Min Lefroy, his widow, had a crippled arm and, in any case, was getting on in years. As she did not want to have the worry of a large boat, and also could not bear to see the Phoenix unused, she sold her to a family friend, a Mr Scott of Scott's Foods in Dublin. The Phoenix made the trip around to Howth and was kept there from 1935 to 1938, when Mr Scott died and left the boat — as well as a car and £500 — to Robert Delamer, his chauffeur. He brought the Phoenix back to Killaloe, where she was moored beside the old Excursion Pier above the Lakeside Hotel. His ownership was short, as he was killed in an air-raid on London in 1940. The Phoenix had been sold by his wife, prior to his death, to Dick Lee (February 1940). Dick was from Limerick, where his family owned a foundry and also the Stella Cafe. Dick had served his time with Harland & Wolff and had indeed worked on the Titanic and the Olympic. At the beginning of the war he had retired from shipping and was looking forward to using the Phoenix a great deal; she was back in the boathouse built for her in Killaloe. In the event, he returned to England and worked for the British Admiralty for the duration of the war, surveying damaged warships, and had little time to spend aboard his own boat. He seems to have been able to buy diesel during the war; the quoted price may amuse: 7d for bulk oil, the equivalent of 3p per gallon! After the war, the Phoenix was spruced up and, for the first time, painted white: by tradition, gentlemen's steam yachts were always painted black. Dick brought her down the estuary for a few trips, as well as up the river, but as he eventually decided to retire in England, he put the boat on the market. On 4 March 1950, "Bunny" Goodbody bought her, using her from his house, Waterloo Lodge, Kilgarvan, before making the Phoenix his family home in Dromineer for two years. She was then laid up in Dromineer for a couple of years, while Aubrey Walker tried to sell her, and in 1954 he found a buyer in George Newenham, of the Limerick Motor Works. George moved her to Killaloe and, over the next few years, transformed her. Off came the original teak wheelhouse and the pine main deck. In their place, soft-wood decks, covered in canvas — and a truly appalling wheelhouse made of what looked like tea-chests. George lived on her for a spell and used her for short journeys up the lake, but he was nervous of the engine, and she never went further than Dromineer. In the late fifties she lay unused, and was home to various people in the Cruising Craft hire-boat company that George's nephew, Hector, had established as part of the Lakeside Hotel operation. In 1962 the Phoenix was re-fitted as a hire-boat. She did two seasons' hire with a skipper, the late Mick Conroy. Mick had a berth in the engine-room when the boat had a full complement of six passengers on board. To cut a very long story short, I borrowed the Phoenix after Christmas 1963 for a trip up the Shannon with friends. In fact, only one brave volunteer turned up and, with the confidence of youth (I knew nothing about the engine except for a ten-minute lesson), we set off up Lough Derg on 27 December. As we left, Hector Newenham mentioned that the boat was for sale, and "perhaps you could persuade your father to buy her back into the family." After ten days of adventure, in which the whole family got involved — that is another story — we returned to Killaloe and a deal was struck on 18 January 1964. We used her as a family boat for a couple of years, finally replacing the old Ellwe engine in 1966 with a Perkins S6. But, as my brother and sister found jobs outside the country and then the gearbox failed, she was little used. One night in Carrick-on-Shannon, where I was now employed with Emerald Star Line, Sandra and I were discussing where we would live in Portumna, where we were to move; our house would not be ready for a month or two after we arrived. A thought occurred: the Phoenix was certainly big enough for two of us, plus Delilah the dog. We finally came to an agreement with my father to buy the boat, and so she moved to Carrick-on-Shannon for the fitting of new decks, wheelhouse (based on the original design), gearbox and galley. On 9 May 1971 we moved on board, not for the six months that we had planned in our naivety, but for eighteen. The Phoenix was then just 99 years old. During the seventies and eighties, the Phoenix was based in Portumna and was used, amongst other things, as a tug for grounded hire-boats, as a flagship for many sailing events, as a commentary vessel for the rowing races in Garrykennedy and, of course, as a houseboat for the family during regattas. She also transported President Childers from Banagher to Clonmacnoise (for the open-air service) and back to Shannonbridge, and was ready to bring President Hillary from Scarriff to Mountshannon some years later, but for a gale of wind! Much work was carried out over these years — new engine, new aft decks, new fit-out below — to try and bring her back towards her original style. When the time came to leave Portumna, it was back on board for the "few months" that it would take to find a house in Killaloe. Finally, after two-and-a-half years, we built one, this time beside the old canal, and with a plan — finally realised — to have a harbour for the Phoenix at the back door. She is now a venerable 127 years old, and will see a third century. How much has changed on the river — but again, in a way, how little. When I read the old log, dating from before the first World War, the cadences are all the same — regattas, rain, visitors on board, magic spring days, frostbite trips in winter, picnics in summer — and long may it all continue!
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